USC students take top honors in clean-energy competition

The University of South Carolina has won a top prize in the “Great Power Race,” an international clean-energy competition among students in China, India and the United States.

A team from the USC Green Quad’s Learning Center for Sustainable Futures finished first among 997 teams in the points race by documenting the wide array of student initiated climate- and energy-related programs and projects at USC.

USC and the University of California-Berkeley were recognized Dec. 9 as the two winning institutions from the United States. The global winner was the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, India. The awards were presented in Cancun, Mexico.

The USC team was led by Anjana Sukumar and Myoung Su Ko, graduate students in environmental resources management. Ko also is a graduate intern in the Green Quad Learning Center. Michael Koman, director of the Office of Sustainability, served as the team adviser.

“The Green Quad’s mission is to promote collaborative relationships among students, faculty, staff and community members for exploring the changes required to create a sustainable society,” said Dr. David Whiteman, Green Quad faculty principal. “This recognition points out the progress we are making in improving sustainability through actions large and small each day at USC.”

Organizers of the Great Power Race included 350.org, the Chinese Youth Climate Action Network, the Indian Youth Climate Network, the Energy Action Coalition, Golden Bridges, the Green Student Forum and AIESEC China. They created the competition to highlight the central role played by China, India and the United States in climate negotiations. As part of the competition, registered teams earned points by documenting the climate and clean-energy solution projects taking place on campus. At USC, those included activities such as workshops, seminars and hands-on learning.